Laws concerning Marriage and Divorce

24 “Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house;

⁷ They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?”^{(A) 8} He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”^[a](B)

⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”^{(A) 5} But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’^{(B) 7} ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,^{[a](C) 8} and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.^{(D) 9} Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰ Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,^{(E) 12} and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

⁸ She^[a] saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce, yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and prostituted herself.^(A)

²⁹ the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her, he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

¹⁹ they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver (which they shall give to the young woman’s father) because he has slandered a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife; he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

Laws concerning Sexual Relations

¹³ “Suppose a man marries a woman but after going in to her dislikes her^(A)

¹¹ (but if she does separate, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband) and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

¹² To the rest I say—I and not the Lord—that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.^(A)

³ Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies):